BINGO is a very popular game that is played as follows: players are given (or buy) a number of cards. On each card is printed a matrix of twenty-five squares arranged in a square array of five contiguous columns by five contiguous rows. Each square in the array is labelled with a distinct whole number. Numbers in column one must be between one and fifteen inclusive, numbers in column two must be between sixteen and thirty inclusive, numbers in column three must be between thirty-one and forty-five inclusive, numbers in column four must be between forty-six and sixty inclusive and numbers in column five must be between sixty-one and seventy-five inclusive. The number in the square at the center of the array (column three, row three) is free on each card. Additionally columns one through five are associated with the letters B, I, N, G, and O respectively. A person referred to as the dealer (or caller) indicates at the beginning of the game what particular pattern on a card (regularly any row, column or diagonal) constitutes "BINGO," in other words, a win. The dealer then randomly draws a number--an integer between one and seventy-five inclusive. Any player whose card has that particular number puts a marker on the appropriate square on his or her card(s). The dealer continues to draw numbers randomly and the players mark their cards as appropriate. Any player who achieves the pre-announced winning pattern of called numbers on any of his or her cards shouts "BINGO" and the game either ends or continues depending on the pre-established rules.
Several attempts have been made to automate Bingo playing but nearly all of these relate to the random selection of the numbers by the dealer (or caller)--for example, Keck & Viola in U.S. Pat. No. 4,080,596; Friedman in U.S. Pat. No. 3,895,807; Hurley in U.S. Pat. No. 3,653,026; Hofsetz in U.S. Pat. No. 2,594,434 and Goloborodko in U.S. Pat. No. 2,333,002.
Only two devices, as known to the present inventors, appear to take the player also into account: Peak in U.S. Pat. No. 2,760,619 describes an electrical panel on which twenty-five lights are positioned. The lights are lighted to correspond with numbers called out by the dealer. The whole panel is connected to player boards. But it is evident that the apparatus requiring dependence of player boards on the master panel is cumbersome and inconvenient to the player. Besides each player board replaces the BINGO card itself.
Likewise Taylor & Whitaker in U.S. Pat. No. 3,671,041 describe a player console having multiple groups of playing boards all tied to a master control board. Again this device is cumbersome. Furthermore, the player console is attached to the master control board which setup severely limits the player's independence. The player console also takes the place of a set of the familiar BINGO cards. The player thus requires as many panels as the desired number of equivalent sets of BINGO cards. The master control board has in effect complete control of the game while the players merely sit and watch their panels.